NVIDIA's recently released GeForce 196.75 WHQL drivers are causing problems with some users reporting "intermittent low FPS", in the words of Blizzard's technical staff. It notes that the drivers have a bug in its fan-speed control that causes graphics cards to overheat when running applications such as Warcraft 3, World of Warcraft and StarCraft 2 Beta. Not only does bad fan control result in bad application performance, but can also damage the graphics accelerator. Blizzard on its part advised users to revert to older versions of the GeForce driver. Version 196.21 (older WHQL-signed driver) can be downloaded from here.

Update (3/5): NVIDIA has withdrawn the 196.75 WHQL drivers from its website. The company is working to resolve this issue.

glad my stock coolers are in a landfill somewhere... to be there for all eternity. Or at least until it decomposes... the copper is probably well on the way... but the plastic shroud along with that stupid sticker they put on it will probably be there for a while.

I am posting from my toshiba laptop with 8600gt`s in sli...I tried an nforce4 based system with sli in the socket 939 days aswell...what does nvidia offer as a hardware company cause all i see is overheating and raid issues and epic headfuck problems seriously buying anythingb from this company is fail

I am posting from my toshiba laptop with 8600gt`s in sli...I tried an nforce4 based system with sli in the socket 939 days aswell...what does nvidia offer as a hardware company cause all i see is overheating and raid issues and epic headfuck problems seriously buying anythingb from this company is fail

I am posting from my toshiba laptop with 8600gt`s in sli...I tried an nforce4 based system with sli in the socket 939 days aswell...what does nvidia offer as a hardware company cause all i see is overheating and raid issues and epic headfuck problems seriously buying anythingb from this company is fail

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your complaints are not related to this topic, and are therefore offtopic and potentially trolling. Cease this action, please.

Yup, I just defended NV on the BSN comments and on that comment thread there was a 480 will kick 5870 remark (way way way off topic).

Techpowerup should start a 'Harmony for gfx users' Forum where adults can discuss NV, ATI and whoever in perfect tech unbiased harmony. I'm getting more than a little queasy with the sheer amount of rampant fanboism from both sides.

On the driver side - any one can screw up. As long as NV renumerate the AIB's for the RMA's - it's cool. But if NV drag their heels then that would be very naughty indeed.

@ newtek
you are right of course,
but the only other issue i ever had with a company that polarized my outlook so much was HP with the firmware issues on the ml110..completely broke my faith in the company......apologies for the off topic but these are the issues that affect me personally and i find inexcusable so i will never spend money with the companies involved as i find the error inexcusable...other companies such as ATI in the 2900 era (i gather that is your point) i managed to avoid in my personal upgrade cycle

Big fail with these drivers. These aren't just like those "early" drivers that keep the GPU hot, but that the bug keeps the fan at low speeds even as temperatures cross critical points when these particular apps are running...till you begin to see artifacts, framerate drops, etc (things which happen to overheated GPUs).